Beating that heat

Some fun goals have finally been achieved this week with research! While the CO2 tank is still empty in Dr. Trinkle's lab, I've been using an incubator and biosafety cabinet in Cong Li's lab where the cells have mercifully not died. This means that I've finally been able to carry out that confluency assay and have determined an optimal seeding density for the titanium bottom petri dishes. I also did a whole bunch of fluorescent dyeing on these dishes yesterday to figure out the optimal dye concentration for Ethidium Homodimer-1! Now that I've figured these out, I can start seeding dishes for actual laser spallation. I should probably also get started on my research paper too...

Last week, I decided that I was going to make it to Black Swan Books before they closed no matter WHAT because I was needing a book. I had finished Slaughterhouse Five a couple days before and had taken to re-reading Trader Joe's Fearless Flyer to the point where I had it pretty much memorized. So, after getting off work, I had an hour until the bookstore closed so I bee-lined home and then walked down Maxwell Street in the sweltering heat. On the way, I passed the florist that I had spotted a couple weeks ago and it was ALSO OPEN. I weighed my options and then went inside. It was so adorable in there! I was tempted to buy seeds and honey, but I settled on a greeting card because I just started organizing my summer budget (with half the summer gone already, of course). I'm going to be a florist now. Here is proof that this place is the best:

Once I dragged myself away from the florist, I got back on track to the bookstore which ended up being this nicely air-conditioned old house in the middle of some antique shops and boutiques. The old guy who ran the place told me stories of how he started this shop from ONE book and how he traveled around the country in search of books for his collection. He also complained about young people going to Amazon for all their needs and I pointedly thought of Melanie. I explored the shop while he went to dig up an old copy of Gone with the Wind in the basement. When I'm a florist, I will live right next to an eclectic bookstore like this one. My life plan is SO GOOD NOW.

When I got back from my adventures, Melisa and Matt and I wanted to get matcha, but the matcha place has a strange license for serving alcohol and kids under 21 weren't allowed service at 6:30 pm. So we went to this secret cafe behind the greenhouses next to the florist! It was covered in ivy and full of fireflies and there was a very social cat wandering around. They had some really good blood orange soda. I want to go back for gelato when I get paid again!!!